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ACE FREHLEY Talks About His Book, Future Plans (Audio)

“Talking Metal” has uploaded podcast episode 368 featuring an interview with original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley about his book, “No Regrets: A Rock ‘N’ Roll Memoir”,. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On the new book:

Frehley: “This book is about from the time I was a kid growing up in the Bronx, playing in bands prior to KISS, going into the audition with KISS, playing with KISS, leaving KISS, doing my own stuff. You know, KISS was just a portion to my life. It was a big portion, but there are a lot of other pieces to the puzzle.”

On releasing new music:

Frehley: “I have several songs in the can that didn’t make it on [Frehley‘s last solo album] ‘Anomaly’ that I have been doing some rewrites on and of course there is some new material I have been working on as well. I am thinking about throwing together a live DVD. There are also old tapes I have from the studio I had up in Connecticut that I had in the ’70s that I haven’t pulled out in a long time so we’ll see what comes about in the spring of next year, hopefully.”

On the “old tapes” he referred to in answer above:

Frehley: “I was thinking of releasing old jam sessions and songs that nobody’s ever heard, I haven’t even heard in a long time. I have over 100 reels of two-inch tape. Eric Carr [late KISS drummer] is probably on a few of them, the late Bobby Mayo, who used to play with Peter Frampton, a couple of guys from Alice Cooper‘s original band, Dennis Dunaway and Neil Smith. Also, I worked on tracks with Chris Kimsey (THE ROLLING STONES‘ producer), stuff with Eddie Kramer. A lot of my stuff was edited out of ‘The Elder’ and I have a lot of the original solos, so that might be something interesting for KISS fans.”

On his recent lunch with KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons:

Frehley: “Me and Gene decided to have lunch. We had lunch at the Beverly Hills hotel in L.A. I read some of the comments and a lot of people are fantasizing this, that and the other thing, but it was really just a friendly lunch to catch up. I really had not met Gene face to face since I did the [VH1] ‘Rock Honors’ show. I wanted him to see that I was clean and sober. I mean, you hear rumors or people say this guy is clean and sober, but they only way to prove that is to meet someone face to face.”

“No Regrets: A Rock ‘N’ Roll Memoir” is being released on November 1 via Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon Schuster.

“No Regrets” was co-written by New York Times journalist Joe Layden who also authored “The Last Great Fight” about what is considered by many to be the biggest upset in the history of boxing: James “Buster” Douglas‘ tenth-round knockout win over Mike Tyson in 1990.